Friday, September 14, 2012

3 Month Art Project Completed Today!

Image of Steve Jenkins

For the past 3 months or so my children have been inspired by the author and illustrator, Steve Jenkins. (pictured on right)  We first discovered Jenkins' books a few years ago and my son instantly took an interest to them since they are about nature and God's creatures.  My son and daughters love nature and animals so they love looking at Jenkins' great illustrations and reading all the fascinating facts in his books.




Here are my children with some of Jenkins' books that we checked out of the library, but we checked out several others too!  My son wanted to check out ALL the Jenkins' books that were in our local library and then he asked if we could buy them all!  Maybe one day we'll have our own Jenkins' library.   This past summer, my cupcakes, especially my son, age 10,  wanted to make paper art like Jenkins.  So in front of them is the collection of art pieces they worked HOURS on over many weeks. 

 

Here is some of their art work beside the illustration in the book.   Can you tell which tang fish my son made using various colors of cardstock?  :) 

My son said this Fangtooth was the most difficult fish to make.  His is on the bottom. :)

My 12 year old daughter loved making this gorilla hand like the one on the cover of Actual Size.  My son helped her make the lemur that rests on the thumb. 

Here's the collection my children made using Jenkins' books as their guide and inspiration.
Land Animals....  

Sea Creatures....

Our family agreed that these beautiful art pieces were made with great care and creativity as I watched scrap paper scatter on our tables and floors and scissors were vigorously cutting out tiny pieces to make 6 layers for one eye, thin tails and fins, beaks, feet, claws and scales for land and sea animals.

So with 2 large canvases and 3 small canvases and these supplies below (Mod Podge, sponge brushes and colored tissue paper) my cupcakes and I were on a mission this afternoon to display these creatures and complete this art project that began this past summer. 

Working with Mod Podge is easy as we brushed on a layer on the canvas, then placed tissue paper on top of the wet canvas.  Then we brushed more Mod Podge on top of the tissue paper.  We used 2 colors of tissue paper to make the background multi-colored.  After placing each art piece on top of the tissue paper, more Mod Podge was brushed on top of the piece.  Then we let it dry.
 
Working hard to decide how to display each animal on the canvas....

 Sneak peek....

They were so proud of their finished product after working all afternoon today to complete it..

Close-up of ocean creatures....

Close-up of their land animals with gorilla hand in top left corner....

They look lovely hanging in our stairwell.
 
  
When I put my son to bed tonight he said, "Don't you love our pictures on the walls Mom?"  I must say I have been very impressed by the amount of time and detail that my children put into making such wonderful pieces for our home.  I remember my son telling me that he would love to make this type of art all day long.  He loves nature and art and I encouraged him to keep appreciating nature (and work hard in school)  and maybe one day he can have a career in nature studies and draw/create what he observes. 

Thanks Mr. Jenkins for inspiring my children to use their imagination and creativity!  I have a feeling more of our walls will be decorated with more art work like this in the future since my son is excited and already planning out what he will put on our other canvases.  

No Ordinary Blog Hop




7 comments:

Love it!!!! The kids did a great job! You should be proud! God Bless!

These are beautiful and I love how you have displayed them!

Patty said...

Oh my goodness!!!! They look like they should belong in an art gallery, Tracy. HOnestly. They look magnificent. You should take pictures and send them to the author. I know he'd be impressed not only with their work but that he inspired these beautiful children so greatly. You may even receive an autographed book...what a great Christmas gift that would make, huh? (*wink*)

Katherine said...

Hey there! I'm jut checking your blog out for the first time and I love it! I will definitely be back here a lot. You have a lot of creative Catholic projects that are right up my alley! So happy to have found you through the Catholic Blogging Network on fb!!! See you again soon :)

These pictures look great!!! your cupcakes did a great job going to look for these books at our library
Voted for you today.

These pictures look great!!! your cupcakes did a great job going to look for these books at our library
Voted for you today.

LeAnn said...

This was so sweet! What an awesome project and the pictures are beautiful. These will be treasured for years to come.
Blessings on this one!

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